Xfer Records

I used serum 1 for very specific wavetable things like trailer braams, aggressive nasty things and such but it was never my all-around synth I would think to go to. When Serum 2 came out that all changed and I started spending more and more time in Serum. I was blown away by the brilliance of this thing from every POV including and especially workflow. I pretty much stoped using Omnisphere and Zebra and spending 95% of my programming time in this thing. I'm not one to rave about soft synths but Serum 2 has been such a refreshingly positive experience I had to write a couple lines. On top of that I just feel the new additions have given me a real creative spark in patch programming and getting to "that point" in your ideas. Thank you Steve! Much love and respect on your development on this.

An Absolute Masterpiece Design of a Synthesizer. Perfect distance between all knobs, minimal necessary menus, many new synthesis capabilities, free update, best workflow out of any plugin I have ever used. 100/10

Serum 1 and 2 are both puzzle-boxes that have very simple and fast synthesis workflows, but also have extreme depth inside for experimenting with the infinite rabbit hole of synthesis capabilities. Serum 1's depth involved resynthesizing and perfecting wavetables, but now Serum 2 is a Hybrid Wavetable synthesizer that can resample into a Sampler/ Granulizer/ or Spectral Synthesis Oscillator. The Spectral Synthesis is especially rare among hybrid synths.

The Bad: Serum 1 was always a bit of a CPU hog, but the granular engine is especially difficult to use without being forced to bounce to sample. Also quite a few random bugs. I can't explain how to recreate them but some bugs involve having random audio spikes. The PV SVF filter feels especially bugged, as any filter I create creates a huge Bass shelf. I'm sure these bugs will be fixed, they are minimal and hardly impact the quality and performance of using 99% of the synth's features.

The Good:

New everything, a new oscillator, a second filter on the front face, second warp mode with new distortion warp modes, new spectral warp modes on spectral oscillator, new filters including a Disperser (Diffuser) that can turn into a super all-pass phaser at 50% mix. New Analog filters. Everything about the Serum 1 UI and workflow has been fixed and cleaned up nicely.

New Bode is a lushious and filthy frequency shifter that has delay feedback and a "blur" knob that I do not see in other freq shifters. Easily creates brain morphing sounds.

New Full-Modular Synthesis: Remember when Massive had a revolutionary workflow due to the ability to Drag and Drop modulation sources like LFO's/ Envelopes/ custom Seqs onto any knob? Now Serum 2 has evolved this workflow again by allowing the ability to Drag and Drop Oscillators on to any knob. Audio-rate modulation combined with quickly creating custom sequences/ LFOs/ new Chaos Modulators allow for the easiest Modular synthesis I have seen in any synth.

New Spectral Synthesis: This is the greatest new addition to the plugin. Spectral synthesis is almost like Additive synthesis by controlling partials by using a sample, however due to the diffuse and inaccurate FFT methods, some of the sounds can be messy/ cause pre-ringing/ or sound random. Spectral synthesis essentially creates the type of sounds that you would expect a cross-mix of granular and additive synths to create. There many new warp modes for this oscillator, including the ability to Mask or Vocode from another oscillator. Wavetables or custom-drawn FFT filters can be used with a cutoff control. Recorded samples can easily be dragged and dropped onto any Spectral Oscillator for deep sound design. Definitely try to experiment with this oscillator as much as possible to create new sounds that other synths have yet to create.

New Granular Synthesis: Other than the bad remark above, the granular engine is very smooth sounding and very simple to use. Audio-Rate and other easy modulation can be used to create very experimental sounds. The workflow is the fastest out of any granular engine I have used despite CPU hog.

New Sampler/Multisampler: Serum can now be a rompler taking real instrument or drum/ creative FX samples with velocity sensitive mapping.

New Arpeggiator and mini-DAW-like Sequencer: Any key played can easily be turned into a quick midi/arp with modulation and velocity sensitive mapping. The Arp section is especially useful for quickly turning sound design into actual music.

The effects can also have a 2-3 Multiband or Mid/Side FX processing section (Multipass in Serum).

Serum 2 is the new revolutionary plug-in of the decade.

this synth is amazing, there's not much to add, you can car everything with it...and the free upgrade is a gesture of beautiful love, although of course with that same love the tip is given.... thanks Xfer.

For me this sounds too digital with no character. The FX are not the best but seems many people using it just for the easy interface and the fame that it has. If you need something easy try it, if you are more purist or what something less "digital" try u-he, roland cloud, discodsp, or some arturia plugins.

New: Xfer updated the interface recently, plus the GUI is resizable now.

About OTT:

The plugin is build after a preset for Ableton Live's multiband compressor, with the intention of giving the same signature sound to producer who use different DAWs than Ableton Live.

Testing both in direct comparison, The sound is very close the original preset, but OTT is actually louder than its idol (+1.3 dB Peak, +0.8 integrated LUFS) and seems (maybe because of that) to have a thicker impression.

But also keep in mind that Ableton's multiband compressor has a lot more features than OTT. So if you use Ableton Live, you probably stick better with the actual preset and compressor plugin, because it offers additional features OTT doesn't.

The sound of OTT in general is very high-mid to high frequency attuenated, with a tendency to almost sounding harsh and hardly tame the low end. But which exactly seems to work quite well for certain synth sounds, which led to its major popularity during the 2010's.

'Depth' acts as dry/Wet, 'Time' seems to adjust how fast Attack/Release is working for all bands. 'IN Gain' and 'Out Gain' let you adjust the according volume.

Now what I am missing intensively, especially for such a complex effect (even if it is just a rebuild of a preset), is more explanations or tips about the use, work and relations of its parameters. OTT does not provide any clues or tips to guide and help to get along with it.

Bad. A reason more to better stick with the original, if you have access to it.

Another thing, many people complaining about is the non-linear phase cancelations which occur at the crossovers and led many to completely dig the plugin.

Take a look at the thread in the Xfer forum, where Steve Duda (the developer) gives response to it:
https://xferrecords.com/forums/general/ott-phase-rotation-fix

I personally share the same opinion that many other plugins do phase shifting as well and noone is complaing about it there either, but I also think it could give the plugin a better shape and lifespan, if he/they would consider updated 'OTT' in this manner.

Meh... I mean, it's all good but is not near as good as people say it is. It use is too specific and can be achieved with other plugins. I rarely use it but I guess it has its own sound quality.

Serum is a great soft synth. I'm not big on sound design yet, so what I do is I get presets, look at how they're made, and learn from there. If you're interested, they also have it on Rent To Own via Splice for $10 a month...definitely worth it.

Great bass sound, fantastic workflow with a lot of flexibility. A great synth and a real joy to use to create music.